Before My Time is about the ancestry and extended family of my four grandparents: John Samuel Krentz (Indiana/North Dakota), Margreta Tjode Hedwig (Gertie) Buss (North Dakota), Rosmer Pettis Kerr (Pennsylvania/Michigan), and Evelyn Elvina Hauer (Michigan), and other topics in genealogy and family history.

Archives, Labels (tags), and other links appear at the bottom of the page.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

July 20, 1941
Sunday
Dear Mom,
We are having a wonderful time! Yesterday we went bicycling and horse back riding. Then we came home, took a bath, and slept for a couple hours. When we woke up we dressed and went to the dance. It was so nice. There were hundreds of fellows and almost all of them were good looking. We just sat down when Gordon came up and asked me to dance, and he stayed with me all evening. I didn't get a chance to dance with anyone else, but it was fun anyway. He was a good dancer. He drove me home and wanted to take me to the beach today but his boyfriend was very short & Frances didn't want to go, so I left the house before he came. We met him on the street later this afternoon but we managed to get away from them after...

...a short talk. He was nice though. However he was only here for the weekend. He came from Chicago.
Today we met Bill Decker. We were sitting on the dock and he came along and began talking to us. We got him to take our picture together, and then Frances got the bright idea that Bill and I should have our picture taken together, so she took it. After a while he drove us to the beach and it's so nice. All white sand. Frances kinda' liked Bill & she wanted her picture taken with him so I took it while we were at the beach. You'll be able to see him when we get the films developed. He's awfully nice.
Gee! Mom, things sure are expensive around here. I'm afraid I'm going to need more money before the week is up. Will you stick a couple dollars in an envelope and mail it to me. Right away quick! I'm...

...going to need it. Just write Mary Kerr % Mrs. Dempster, Saugatuck, Mich. and I'll get it.
Thanks loads, Mom. I don't know what I'd do without you.
Will write again later.
Bye now.
Love,
Mary
P.S. I just read over the letter & it seems like all I told you about was the men folks. Really, mom, they are only incidental. We have had lots of fun without them as well as with them. And I'll tell you a secret. I still like Charles best.
Love,
M.

Too funny! The men are short and incidental! Send money right away quick! I wonder if my grandmother laughed as loud as I did. I bet she did.

The photo of my mom on horseback is one of the snapshots I used in the book about my mom. I realized it was a Saugatuck photo when I noticed it had the same batch number stamped on the back as other photos now identified as being from the Saugatuck trip.

Frances on the Chicago guy's car (Illinois plates!)

Frances with Bill Decker

This page from the book about my mom features two snapshots of her from the Saugatuck trip.

4 comments:

I love the photos, and the letter really adds to them. This is why scrapbooking is so great. The pictures alone are wonderful all by themselves but when you put them together with the information in the letter they are so much more. Terrific!

Great post and especially nice to view those photos on a day we are in the "Great Blizzard of 2011". Saugatuck is just down the road from here by the way. Supposed to be a great tourist town. Want to go?

Cynthia, thanks! And 'plea' is such a delicate way to put it, LOL! I noticed that "Will you stick a couple dollars in an envelope" did not end with a question mark! And jeez, she was only there for the week-- the mail must have gone back and forth lickety-split back in the day, before all the new-fangled high-tech mail-sorting machines slowed it down... I'm just sayin'...

Our Family in Books: A Bibliography

My Ancestors in Books (a library of resources and notes pertaining to Reverend Samuel Stone, Major General Robert Sedgwick, Elder John Crandall, and other early Americans in the forest where my family tree was grown)

History of St. James Lutheran Church [full title: A little of this and a little of that in the 141 year (1861-2002) History of St. James Lutheran Church, Reynolds Indiana] by Harold B. Dodge, published at Reynolds, Indiana, 2002; 170 pages.

Lisbon, North Dakota 1880-2005 Quasuicentennial, published at Lisbon, North Dakota in 2005; 391 pages.